Oops!
by Roxis-kun
Summary: Jess, as usual, dabbles in her medical alchemy. But, like she always does, makes a mess of her attempt. Only this time, her medicine does more damage to her friends than to her. And this one doesn't explode! But, what does it do?


Jess giggled devilishly as she mixed several ingredients in the cauldron under the careless supervision of her mana. Since everyone left her alone in the workshop to do their own thing, she decided to use her time for a new synthesis she had been brewing up for weeks. Unlike a few of her other crazy ideas, this one had a practical purpose; she decided she would make a healing medicine twice as effective as a heal jar. Sure, she could have made an elixir or something, but she wanted to make her own design.

The mana, about twenty minutes in the synthesis, peeked down in the cauldron to check out the contents. "Jess, are you sure about this? I mean, isn't it likely to blow up?"

Jess puffed her cheeks out. "Hey! I know what I'm doing this time! You know, you could show some support every now and then!"

The mana shrugged and floated around the room again since she had nothing to do. Jess, as carelessly as always, tossed her final ingredient into the cauldron and mixed them together. Once she made certain she had everything thouroughly mixed, she sat down on the loft to let everything simmer. The mana, noticing her, went to her side and settled down contently, yet nervously since she didn't know what to expect with Jess' synthesis.

Nearly an hour later, not one of her fastest nor slowest synthesis, the simmering finished and she went down to gather some of the mixture into a flask. She raised the flask up triumphantly. "Yes! It came out great!" she exclaimed, giggling excitedly about her finished, successful, synthesis. The mana sighed, a sweat drop rolling down her face. She wanted to tell her it was a bad idea, but she kept quiet since it never registered in her mind.

Jess, being extremely excited about her synthesis, decided to test it. She waited for Vayne to come in since he typically arrived before anyone else. She smiled and ran to him, shoving the medicine in his face to try. "Vayne, good timing! Could you try this for me? I made it extra special today!" she exclaimed, trying her hardest to convince him to try it.

He tried to push her hand down, but he didn't manage so well; she tended to get a lot stronger when she wanted something strongly. "Uh...no thanks, Jess. I'm fine, so I don't need any medicine."

"But, would you please try it for me?" she pleaded.

He sighed heavily. "O...okay..." he agreed.

She squealed with joy at his response. She passed the flask along to him, which he hesitantly took from her. He pressed the rim to his lips and tipped it up enough to allow some to run into his mouth and get a taste. He looked at her with wide eyes. "This...is good! It works and...it tastes absolutely delicious!"

She giggled cutely and excitedly. "Oh! Really! Vayne, thank you!"

He nodded and rubbed the back of his head nervously as he tended to do very often. Jess took it back when he tried to hand it off to her. "Hm... You think everyone else would like this?" she asked, cocking her head and eyeing him sweetly.

He nodded. "Of course. I mean, I can vouch for it," he assured her.

She took one of his hands in her free one. "Thank you, Vayne! Oooh~ I can't wait on them to get here!"

He sat beside her on the loft and awaited the arrival of the others. For some odd reason, they all came in together aside from Roxis who was probably dabbling in his studies in the resource center. To each one, she and Vayne convinced them to try it and, finally, each one did. And, just like Vayne, each one raved on about how it was actually good for once.

Jess, seeing as she had done everything she had wanted to do, went back to her bedroom for the night. Later on, nearing eleven or so, Roxis ran up to her room against all rules and banged on the door until she answered some time later. She yawned and rubbed her eyes. "Er...Roxis...? Why are you here?"

He grabbed her wrist without a word. He dragged her down to the workshop, which she found to be full of babies...each one looking like one of her friends! "What happened here?" she asked, looking at him expectantly.

He gave her a dark glare. "I found Vayne's door open and peeked inside. When I did, I saw him like this. So, out of suspicion, I checked on everyone else only to find them in the same state...Aside from Pamela, that is. So, I brought them here." He paused for a moment before asking, "You had something to do with this, didn't you?"

She shifted her weight, however meager, nervously. She tried to play it off cool, but to no avail. It seemed to her that his eyes could pierce anyone and discover any secret. "Y-yes... Well, I was trying to make a new medicine, but I guess it turned out wrong," she told him with a chuckle.

He gave her a cold eye. "Don't even try to laugh this off! Do you not realize how severe our situation is!"

She bit her lip, suddenly feeling scared by him more than she ever had. She looked towards the cauldron. "Well... maybe I can make something to fi-"

He cut her off. "No, you've made enough. Tell me what you did and I'll try to devise an antidote for this."

She nodded and reached into her bag, taking out a paper tablet and pen. She scribbled down quickly all the ingredients she used and passed the memo along to him. He studided it for a bit then nodded to himself. "Alright, I think I can cure this. As for you, take care of the 'little ones' while I'm working on it, understand?"

She looked down like a scolded child. Before she could answer him, he had already left to collect the ingredients. She sat down in the floor, calling each of her friends to her. She smiled tenderly at them; for the first time in her life, she felt like a mother, something she believed she would never feel again. She kind of hated the thought of them turning back, giving her no one to take care of, but she knew it had to be done.

Roxis came back a while later to find her lying on the floor with each baby asleep by her side. He tapped her shoulder to wake her up, cautious of the babies. "Jessica, wake up. We need to get this prepared." He then left her side and went to the cauldron, beginning his work on the synthesis. She, upon his request, would be responsible for keeping them all out of trouble and passing him the correct ingredient when he asked for it; he gave her that job for the sole reason of her asking for something more important to do.

When they finished, he entrusted her with the task of distributing it to each one of them, one-by-one. She finished up with Nikki being the last one. She sighed and wiped some sweat from her brow. Roxis pushed his glasses up and lifted a few of them. "Let's get everyone back to their rooms before we get in trouble."

The next morning, she went to the workshop and found everyone as they were. She smiled a bit, but she also wanted to frown since she knew about it and remembered that feeling so clearly. Everyone but Roxis looked at her strangely. She returned their looks, but kindly. She wondered where Pamela was last night, but she decided not to ask her since she seemed to be having fun with her teddy bear in the corner. In that peaceful moment, she decided she wouldn't do anything so dangerous again...at least for a while. 


End file.
